Archive for the ‘Notre Dame Football’ Category

Notre Dame received the first blow to its 2009 recruiting class Thursday when Eric Shrive made a surprise commitment to Penn State.

West Scranton offensive lineman Eric Shrive, one of the top offensive line prospects in the state, committed to Penn State’s 2009 class Thursday, according to a report in the Scranton Times.

The addition of Shrive is somewhat of a surprise, as most recruiting experts believed Notre Dame was in the the lead for his services.

Shrive is considered one of the best offensive linemen in the country and was thought to be at the top of Notre Dame’s wish list. Tall, athletic tackles like Shrive are hard to come by and are a hot commodity in football as evidenced by the Dolphins taking Jake Long #1 overall in last month’s draft.

What makes matters even more disappointing is that Shrive was considered to be all but a lock for the Irish just a couple months ago.

With Shrive off the board, Weis and staff will most likely have the full court press on Xavier Nixon as their top tackle.

I updated our 2008 Recruiting Board with Shrive’s commitment.

College Football News produced a list of very early bowl predictions for the 2008 season recently, and they have the Irish matched up against Miami.

I must say that I am a bit surprised.  CFN usually has “doom and gloom” type predictions for the Irish so it is very interesting to see them predict good things for Notre Dame this year.

A potential matchup with Miami would renew the short lived rivalry that brewed between the schools during the Lou Holtz/Jimmy Johnson Eras at both schools.  There is still no love loss between the schools and a bowl matchup between the two would be wildly entertaining.

While the scenario is indeed intriguing, it’s probably a little too early to be thinking about bowl matchups coming off a 3-9 season, but hey, it’s only May, we still have  three and a half long months until the season gets here so why not?

Former head coach Lou Holtz was named an inductee into the College Football Hall of Fame on Thursday headling this year’s class along with former UCLA quarterback Troy Aikman.

Holtz, a studio analyst for ESPN’s college football coverage, coached six schools to 249 victories in a career that spanned more than 30 years. He won a national title with Notre Dame in 1988. - AP

Apparently winning a Heisman Trophy is not enough to get inducted into the Hall of Fame as Tim Brown was snubbed again this year.  Dave Casper and Jim Seymour were also on the list of finalists but did not make the cut.  How Brown isn’t inducted when Don McPherson, the Syracuse quarterback he beat for the Heisman in ‘87, was this year is a bit curious.

According to ESPN, a potential 6 game series with Rutgers has been called off because the Scarlet Knights did not want to play home pages at the new Giants Stadium

According to a source with knowledge of the situation, the Irish wanted Rutgers’ three home games in the series to be played at the new Giants/Jets stadium in the Meadlowlands — a compromise that Rutgers, which is undertaking a $102 million renovation of Rutgers Stadium, was unwilling to make, according to the report.

Can’t say I blame Rutgers here.  Unlike the UConn series, Rutgers isn’t a new Division 1A football school and have made a lot of progress with their program in the last few years.   Having a “home” game in your own state where the opposing team has more fans would do them more harm than good in recruiting - especially considering how well the Irish already recruit in New Jersey. 

After doing some research on Cierre Wood tonight, here is a collection of stats and quotes on Notre Dame’s latest five star running back commitment.

2007 Season Stats (source):

• Rushing: 178 Carries for 2612 Yards (14.7 Avg) with 34 touchdowns
• Receiving:  7 catches for 191 yards (27.3 Avg) with 2 touchdowns
• Passing: 2 for 2 for 71 yards with 1 touchdown
• Punt Returns: 7 for 373 yards (53.3 Avg) with a long of 97
• Kick Returns: 7 for 307 yards (43.9 Avg) with a long of 91
• 6 total return touchdowns
• Punting: 23 for 923 (40.1 Avg) with a long of 56
• 42 total touchdowns

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Here’s some thoughts from watching the Blue-Gold game.

Offense

• Jimmy Clausen’s arm looks a lot stronger.  He was throwing some bullets out there today.  He only completed 10 of 27 passes but that was in part because of a large number of drops.
• The wide receivers didn’t look too good.  Duval Kamara and David Grimes each had multiple drops and the blocking amongst the receivers in the run game was not that strong.  Considering the problems with drops last year,  seeing the #1 and 2 receivers drop balls that hit them square in the hands is not very encouraging.
• Golden Tate looked great on the go route in the final minute, but we knew he could run go routes last year.  We still didn’t see him get the ball in space where he can use his speed to make any big plays.   Tate is still probably the only receiver who can create much separation so he’ll need a great fall camp if this offense will have much of a downfield threat.
• Armando Allen was looking pretty good running the ball.  He ran with more confidence and was able to run through a couple arm tackles - the same type of arm tackles that he’d go down too easily on last year.  Allen didn’t get the ball in the passing game, but in his 11 carries, he totaled 50 yards.
• James Aldridge didn’t get the ball much at all - just six times total - but he did look pretty good in limited action.  Not really sure why Aldridge only got the six carries compared to Allen’s 11 and Robert Hughes’ 22.
• Hughes looked great again.  He showed great vision and footwork in turning
• It was tough to tell how the offensive line is doing since they weren’t allowed to cut block.  Then again, based on how the OL executed cut blocks last year (see Michigan game), maybe they permanently shouldn’t be able to cut block.   Still, the  defense was getting a lot of pressure on Clausen throughout the day - was that the offensive line letting the defensive line through or was the increased pressure a result of Jon Tenuta’s influence.
• Weis said two of the sacks given up were on plays where the offensive linemen yelled “cut” which was supposed to get the defender to stop in their place.  Instead, the defenders ignored the calls and kept going after Clausen.
• A holding call negated a Clausen to Grimes touchdown - gee, where have I seen that happen before?
• Trevor Robinson is already as big as the other ND offensive linemen - he is going to be a beast.
• Mike Ragone had one nice catch and was lining up in more of an h-back position at times.  He was also wearing knee braces on both knees just as the ND Oline does.
• Barry Gallup didn’t look too bad running the ball considering he spent all last season at receiver.  He won’t challenge Hughes, Allen, or Aldridge, but he could be a competent back who takes carreis in the event we are ever far enough ahead to pull the starters.  He’s also quick enough to the edge that I’m sure there’s a few plays Weis could draw up for him.  If we see much of Gallup at RB this year though, we’re either a lot better or a lot worse than we thought.
• The fullback was not featured much at all yesterday - that wouldn’t be a bad thing if that carried over into the season.

Defense

• Harrison Smith was lining up all over the field.  When the second team defense was on the field, he was playing strong safety.  When the first team defense was out, he was playing as a safety getting dropped down to the line in certain packages.  He made a great play in picking off Clausen on a quick pass to Ragone.
• Brian Smith looked GREAT and recorded two sacks.  He was getting looks at ILB and if the staff can find another OLB, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Smith playing inside more permanently.
• Kyle McCarthy played well enough to secure the starting strong safety spot heading into fall camp.
• Morrice Richardson was getting good pressure on Clausen most of the game and looked good playing along the line.   Richardson led all defenders with 7 tackles.
• There weren’t a whole lot of negative running plays caused by the defense and it looks like we could be susceptible to the run up the middle again this year.
• Toryan Smith was playing with the second team and it looks like he still hasn’t really put it together.
• Darrin Walls ankles might be a little sore today after Armando Allen make him fall over with a nice cut on the run to the outside in the first half.
• Emeka Nwankwo played A LOT and looked very solid.  I was impressed with his size in all of the practice videos and he looked the part standing next to ian Williams.
• Terrail Lambert had the hit of the day with a punishing knock on Armando Allen at the goal line.

Gotta head off the airport and catch my flight home.  I’ll have more updates tonight.

• Matt Romine missed the game due to the same ankle injury that has slowed him all spring. He was in a walking cast Saturday.
• Robby Parris also missed the game due to an undisclosed injury.
• Kallen Wade also had an undisclosed jersey and was in jeans. It’s been rumored that he only had a low ankle sprain.
• Richard Jackson left the game in the first half with, you guessed it, an undisclosed injury.
• John Ryan was held out of contact all spring with his shoulder surgery and missed the game.

Sophomores to be Robert Hughes (RB) and Harrison Smith (S) were named the MVPs for the 2008 Blue Gold Game on Saturday.

Hughes ran the ball a game high 22 times for an even 100 yards and a touchdown. Hughes’ 22 carries were twice as many as other Irish running back registered and more than all of the other backs combined. Armando Allen gained 50 yards on 11 carries, James Aldridge six for 18, and Gallup four for three.

From Weis:

“Because he’s so big and physical, you can get away with that a lot of times. But all I’m saying is when you start going for real, the difference between maybe getting five yards and getting seven yards, you know, that subtle hidden yardage could just be the difference between running like this and running like that.

It might be a yard or two. But those yard or two add up as the game goes on. It might not be the difference between rushing for another 50 yards, but it might be another 20 yards. And instead of it 2nd and 5, it’s 2nd and 3. It’s something that we’ll continue to work on.”

Harrison Smith got the defensive MVP after picking off Jimmy Clausen and returning it for a touchdown in the second half.   He also totaled 5 tackles and nearly recorded a sack of Clausen as well.

From Weis:

He’s not playing linebacker, actually. He’s playing a safety that we’re dropping down. That’s, as I said the other day, we have a couple of different packages. But one package, you saw Scott Smith playing a lot of the same position. We’re trying to get interchangeable parts so that we can play the same defense with what we call “base people” with linebackers with a big body like Scott Smith. Then play it with a smaller body that is more of a safety type like a Harrison Smith.

Charlie Weis named 5th year senior Maurice Crum and seniors David Bruton and David Grimes captains for the 2007 season on Saturday.

Crum will be a captain for the second year in a row while Bruton and Grimes will be first time captains this year.

Weis said of the captain’s vote on Saturday after the Blue-Gold game:

“There was a few other contenders that got some votes in there. But in all three cases, these guys were clear winners. You know, they were clear winners. Like if it came down to it a guy was a vote difference, I would have seen that the offense or defense or special teams saw two guys as the guy. But in all three cases, you know, it was a clear winner. “

Saw the following ad in this week’s ESPN The Magazine - it’s been floating around a couple of the ND sites the past couple of days so I figured I would scan a high res version of it.